The incredibly rich palette of textures, lights, and colors Marker discovers in video in Last Bolshevik sets new standards for the medium’s beauty and expressiveness. It’s a contentious essay on the history of Soviet cinema and the Soviet Union itself; beyond that it’s a multifaceted self-portrait and autocritique by Marker of what it has meant to be a committed leftist for most of this century. The subject is what it meant to be a communist — and what it means to think about communism today.
Jonathan Rosenbaum
January 21, 1994